Memory Seed by Stephen Palmer Read Free Book Online Page A

all your pyuter things? Odds and stuff?’
    ‘I am ready,’ Graaff-lin replied.
    Zinina led Graaff-lin to a narrow passage and pointed out the concrete rubbish dump. ‘This is a dead end. See that rusty steel cover? It’s our way in. Follow me.’
    Graaff-lin did as she was bid, swallowing a handful of pills while Zinina produced an iron rod to prise out the cover. Sheets of green water hindered Zinina, but most of it swirled into the hole created as she pulled up the cover. ‘Jus’ jump,’ she said, shining a bacteria torch into the hole. ‘It’s only a couple of yards. Go on, I’ll follow.’
    Once Graaff-lin had entered Zinina followed, pulling back the cover behind her. She looked around. In the azure light of her torch she saw rusty pyutons, wood cases, streaks of mould, and a quantity of water in puddles. The place seemed not too decayed, though, which came as a relief.
    ‘I’ll light a lamp,’ Graaff-lin said. Yellow light merged with the blue.
    Only one exit presented itself. This led into a similar room, dryer but dustier, and looking back they could see clouds of dust rising and settling. ‘On into that tunnel,’ Zinina said, leading the way. For five hundred yards they walked, until they entered a third room with no exit bar a trapdoor. This Zinina hauled up. She dropped herself into the room below.
    ‘How far now?’ Graaff-lin asked.
    ‘Long way. Come on.’
    The fourth room, a chamber that, judging by the smashed wall-mounted screens and the long, centrally placed table, seemed once to have been a meeting place, led into a fifth room. This too had a trapdoor. Zinina lay on the chilly concrete and listened at the plastic cover. A low hum. There seemed also to be a higher-pitched buzzing.
    She looked at Graaff-lin. ‘Let’s wait, eh?’
    A nervous Graaff-lin approached and crouched by Zinina, her knees creaking. ‘Why? Is everything all right?’
    ‘Sure it is. But I can hear the grumble of auto-pallets and other light stuff below. I’d rather wait ’til the tunnel’s clear.’
    ‘And the tunnel below us now is the one leading under the Citadel?’
    ‘Yeah. There’ll probably be quite a climb at the end. It’s basically a service link.’
    Graaff-lin stared into Zinina’s eyes, and Zinina caught a sudden glimpse of the aamlon’s religious intensity. ‘Just how did you come to know of this secret entrance?’
    Zinina shrugged, shifting her kit into a more comfortable position. ‘I was Citadel Guard, y’know. When you work in the Citadel you trade secrets. Secrets are the currency over there.’
    ‘And this is one of yours?’
    ‘I know the tunnel from the other end, and I later found out where those meeting shelters back there came out. This tunnel goes under the Andromeda Quarter and reaches the Power Station.’
    As Zinina placed her ear to the cover once again, Graaff-lin reached out to stroke her neck and head. ‘You are a lovely woman, Zinina. Did you really work as a guard?’
    Zinina paused, looked into the aamlon’s eyes. ‘I just did the job to get closer to the centre of things. And for the safety, of course.’
    ‘I am not sure it is safer within the Citadel,’ Graaff-lin mused, her eyes taking a faraway look.
    ‘Everything I’ve told you is true,’ Zinina said, wanting to make the most of the feeling that had come upon them.
    ‘Yes, we’ve both got the same aim. To find out more. Come on.’
    Zinina sprang to her feet and pulled up the cover. A metal ladder allowed them to descend.
    Immediately the atmosphere of the tunnel attacked them. It was hot, with a strong chemical smell that seemed to make the place as dead as an oven. All around them cables were strung, some as thick as tree trunks snaking across the floor, others thin or just bare wires. And everywhere there lay glittering junction boxes, hastily screwed repairs, and piles of rubble. A glinting monoline ran along the bottom. Pin-point lights added to the illumination provided by the bacteria torch